Vegan Question

[Abbie]

I am hoping to come to St Andrews to study geography in September and am a vegan.Just deciding whether to go self catering but would really prefer to be in an old hall catered.Is anyone else vegan there now or hoping to start in September and can you recommend a hall to choose.I know you can't really choose but I would like to try and request the most suitable one for vegans.

[maenad]

Being even vegetarian in hall is often depressing, and as far as I know they don't cater for vegans at all. Some meals would be OK, but a lot of the vegetarian options contain dairy products, even if it's only a cheese topping. I would go self-catering; I can understand wanting to be in hall for first year but being self-catered isn't really a problem socially. I am in my second year living in Albany Park with four people whom I didn't know last year and it's worked out fine. They might even try to put first years together, I'm not sure.

[hr]

Tommy can you hear me?

[Bonnie]

I know vegans in my hall had a tough time. They ended up making most of their own food. I'd say a catered hall is too expensive to have to make your own food too.
However, I will say that McIntosh Hall has catered to vegans successfully.

[Captain_Spanky]

Remember kids: If they're vegan, then they're not real people. If you see a pregnant one be sure to kick them in the stomach. If we all band togethre we can easily stop them spreading.

[hr]

Beatrice - Darling. Dearest. Dead.

[flarewearer]

It doesn't matter if you eat meat or you don't, if you want to eat things that are actually made from food, then trust in your own culinary skills and go self catered.

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[bramble]

Hi,
Just wanted to give you a heads up about field trips in geography, a lot of them are catered and to be honest they were pretty useless in even providing vegetarian food to my friend. She had to slowly explain she didnt eat any kind of animal when the vegetarian option turned out to be prawns! It would definately be a case of planning ahead for these types of things, hopefully if the tutors know far enough in advance they can provide for you properly. Dont want to scare you off at all, just a little hint
Hope it all works out for you

[hr]

Ich will die Ruhe stören...

[flossy]

Most of the veggie options seem to consist of cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Save your money and go self catered.

(Beetons, the canteen at the Union always has a vegan option)

[hr]

Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

[Bizarre Atheist]

You can of course still live in hall and be self-catered...it's the beautiful wonder of NEW HALL! Huzzah!

[hr]

http://www.charities-campaign.org.uk

[Malcolm]

Quoting Bizarre Atheist from 21:25, 20th Mar 2007
You can of course still live in hall and be self-catered...it's the beautiful wonder of NEW HALL! Huzzah!

[hr]

http://www.charities-campaign.org.uk

I've heard NH is going 100% catered next year, actually. But the rumour mill is usually talking bollocks!

[Bizarre Atheist]

I have it on excellent authority (I work in admissions) that it isn't, but that the prospect isn't far off.

[hr]

http://www.charities-campaign.org.uk

[exnihilo]

Somewhere between Bonnie and Captain_Spanky, being vegan is a choice, you may certainly ask but if the hall/university says it cannot accommodate you, I don't see it as being particularly unreasonable. If you want hall life, without hall food, that is possible and, although people will say the reduction in fees is minimal, you need to bear in mind what is spent on catering, then it seems almost generous.

[Harry Giles]

I believe that Uni Hall does vegan food now. In general, however, I did some work with the people at ResBus on the subject, and we came to the conclusion that we couldn't make the economics of regular vegan provision work across all accommodation just yet.

[Malcolm]

I suppose if push came to shove, you could just completely ignore the hall system and live in private accommodation for first year?

Mind you, that prospect sucks. The great thing about hall life in first year is getting to know everybody.

[Jono]

Quoting Bonnie from 00:03, 20th Mar 2007
I know vegans in my hall had a tough time. They ended up making most of their own food. I'd say a catered hall is too expensive to have to make your own food too.
However, I will say that McIntosh Hall has catered to vegans successfully.

How do you figure that one out? I'm living there currently, and, even though they do veggie options, most of the ones they do do wouldn't be acceptable to vegans. They even say in the handbook that they can't guarentee catering for vegans.
You'd have a hell of a time though. The cookers are only switched on in the weekends; so I figure you'd pretty much be on salads sandwiches all week!

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[Bonnie]

My hall (Melville) and McIntosh are not the same hall.
I said that McIntosh has catered to vegans, not myself, successfully. It was thoroughly difficult, and because I know both sides of that story, that being of both the kitchen staff and the vegan residents, I feel very confident in saying that it is easier and cheaper to live in an uncatered hall as a vegan than to live in a catered hall and still have to make one's own food. I believe Chattan was the exception to the rule due to exceptionally (beyond what would have been reasonable) accommodating staff.

Quoting jono from 15:31, 21st Mar 2007

Quoting Bonnie from 00:03, 20th Mar 2007
I know vegans in my hall had a tough time. They ended up making most of their own food. I'd say a catered hall is too expensive to have to make your own food too.
However, I will say that McIntosh Hall has catered to vegans successfully.

How do you figure that one out? I'm living there currently, and, even though they do veggie options, most of the ones they do do wouldn't be acceptable to vegans. They even say in the handbook that they can't guarentee catering for vegans.
You'd have a hell of a time though. The cookers are only switched on in the weekends; so I figure you'd pretty much be on salads sandwiches all week!

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[Guest]

go self catered all the way... if you don't you'll really regret it when you're on your third week of baked potato....

[Nathaniel LaVigne]

I was in a similar position when I filled out my application request form. I'm vegan too, so I applied for self-catered and I'm glad I did. I was pretty bummed out that this left me no chance of being in a centrally located hall of residence, but I've ended up not minding the walk into town. From what I know of the lifestyles of my friends in catered halls I think it would be terrible to live in one as a vegan. Firstly it would mean paying for food that you will rarely be able to eat (cheese abounds). Since health/specialty vegan food is more expensive in St Andrews than most places you're already going to pay a little more for food if you want variety in your diet.

Another problem with living in catered halls is you would have less refridgerator space, so if you were planning on making all your own meals it could be pretty difficult. Also, I know in some halls they turn off the stoves and ovens during the week since most people only use them on the weekends when meals are not served.

Living a little bit outside of town isn't so bad. It's not as far out as it looks on the maps, and it gives you a chance to get exercise and fresh air.



[Hello Cauliflower Stew!]

[Tweedle-Dum]

I did notice it often impossible to eat hall food as a normal person, just eat out lots.

[hr]

Tetragrammaton is a four letter word.

[spongebob]

How could a student afford to eat out loads?

[abbie]

Quoting Nathaniel LaVigne from 22:12, 21st Mar 2007
I was in a similar position when I filled out my application request form. I'm vegan too, so I applied for self-catered and I'm glad I did. I was pretty bummed out that this left me no chance of being in a centrally located hall of residence, but I've ended up not minding the walk into town. From what I know of the lifestyles of my friends in catered halls I think it would be terrible to live in one as a vegan. Firstly it would mean paying for food that you will rarely be able to eat (cheese abounds). Since health/specialty vegan food is more expensive in St Andrews than most places you're already going to pay a little more for food if you want variety in your diet.

Another problem with living in catered halls is you would have less refridgerator space, so if you were planning on making all your own meals it could be pretty difficult. Also, I know in some halls they turn off the stoves and ovens during the week since most people only use them on the weekends when meals are not served.

Living a little bit outside of town isn't so bad. It's not as far out as it looks on the maps, and it gives you a chance to get exercise and fresh air.



[Hello Cauliflower Stew!]

thanks everyone for your replies, much appreciated!

to Nathaniel LaVigne : Can i ask which self catered accomodation you applied for and your opinions??? i worry about being a lonely fresher outside halls.....

and to pose that as a general question, if i was to go down the self catered route, whats the best option??